Playing & Trading Strategy

Easy Money is an important subject for HSXers.   A strong performance by Rodney Dangerfield – not at the level of Back to School or Caddyshack, though – is complemented by Joe Pesci and a theme song that became part of Billy Joel’s Innocent Man album.  A fine movie, well worth two hours (if you can find it -- looking at you, losers at Netflix and Amazon Prime).

Over the longer term, low-risk opportunities for strong short-term profits are attractive to every HSX trader but most especially for those whose funds are limited.  Skillful implementation of “easy money” strategies can accelerate a trader’s journey from ‘I miss some attractive opportunities because I don't have enough cash' to 'I have purchased everything available and therefore have wads of cash lollygagging at an anemic interest rate.’

Free money.  Perhaps the most predictable easy money method is found at the green banner near the top of the HSX homepage (under the black masthead).  Selecting “EARN H$” (fifth choice from the left) produces a menu of three once-per-day money-making opportunities that are easy, free, and – especially for the new trader – lucrative:

(1) Classic Cash is an online chuck-a-luck game that requires a few seconds and no skill.  Seven movie posters are presented – pick one. If you select the winner, HSX credits H$50,000 to your account. You have a one-in-seven chance to win and can try once each day. Average luck in this context generates $200,000 monthly.

(2) Movie Mogul, which asks fives questions about movies, can generate handy profits for the knowledgeable and the lucky. Each correct answer (from five options) generates H$2,000.  After a few weeks, you are likely to have encountered most of the questions already.  If you aren’t averaging four correct answers ($H8,000) relatively soon, you need to accept that your tuition payments are a waste and that you should consider joining the freakin’ Peace Corps.  Or, at least, head down to the Jewish house and ask one of the brainiacs to help you (in exchange for letting that guy watch Mandy through the window).

(3) Classic Cash, which asks you to choose the higher-grossing movie of two, offers another five chances to win H$2,000.  Delta House just rapid-fires left or right, allowing chance to fix our fate in roughly 20 seconds, but if your life is sufficiently desolate you could devote the time needed to look up the answers at boxofficemojo or another website.

Even an Omega pledge should be able to generate a profit – no investment (beyond time) required, no chance to lose a dime – approximating $350,000 per month after becoming familiar with these easy money opportunities.  For smaller accounts, that can be a handy path toward a larger account, as the “free money” not only increases portfolio value but also becomes capital that can be used to generate larger returns from trading.

Opening calls and puts.  Another route toward quick, easy money on a limited budget involves investment in calls and puts for opening movies.  These “derivative” securities – 25,000 available to each trader at H$2 – are customarily offered weekly (Wednesdays, customarily) and cash out at a price based on the opening weekend (Fri-Sun, unless otherwise stated) box office of a new movie.  Find them at the Market Calendar (within News And Events, at the green bar).

The HSX exchange operator establishes the target revenue (increments of $5 million) and the call cashes out at the amount by which the reported revenue exceeds (for a call) or falls short of (for a put) that target.  The serious money, with reduced risk, in the context involves blockbusters.  If a target is $100 million, for example, the call provides a nearly tenfold return (H$20 per call) if the movie overperforms by 20 percent at the box office – and the most you can lose is the original investment (H$2 per call), regardless of how poorly the movie performs.

EXAMPLE:  Investing in SPID8 has produced a healthy profit for Delta House – roughly H$H29 million, as of a minute ago -- but that required tens of millions of dollars and dozens of months. SPID8.CA will produce a far daily better return on investment, regardless of whether purchased at H$2 or – the day before it halted – at $H5.   Our H$50,000 investment will generate a profit of perhaps H$1.5 million – a thirty-fold increase – in less than three weeks.  For smaller investors, daily return on investment is an overarching consideration.

Calls and puts are usually offered 19 days before cashout.  Prices of these derivatives increase or decrease during that 19-day period, depending on whether traders are buying (or covering) or selling (or shorting) the derivates, so arranging maximum profit from a put or call often requires a 19-day holding period.  For major releases, however, purchasing a call or put closer to the opening weekend can generate a higher daily return on investment.

One can short puts and calls, but the relatively limited profit potential (capped at the amount of investment, H$2 if purchased during initial offering) and severe prospects of loss (no such cap) counsel severe caution in this context.

There are other paths toward easy money at HSX, but at Delta House we firmly believe no class is worth all that much time, so we will adjourn here and pick up where we left off (if anyone remembers where that was) next time.

Good luck!

Respectfully submitted,
this nineteenth day December 2021,.
Sen. John Blutarsky, Sergeant-At-Arms, Delta Tau Chi